Robeco has secured a private fund management ( PFM ) licence from the Asset Management Association of China for its wholly-foreign-owned enterprise ( WFOE ), Robeco Private Fund Management ( Shanghai ).

The global asset manager, with headquarters in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has been investing in Chinese equities since 1990. It launched its first offshore China equity strategy more than 20 years ago.

"The PFM licence marks another major milestone in our journey in China, following the successful establishment of our then WFOE in China in 2015 and qualified domestic limited partner ( QDLP ) approval in 2018,” says Robeco’s head of China Jin Mei. “China has always been a strategically important market for Robeco and we look forward to contributing to its continuing success, as China opens up its financial and capital markets.”

"We will continue to capitalize on our expertise in sustainable investing, quantitative investing, trends investing, credits investing and emerging markets investing to introduce more diversified offerings in our China onshore investment strategies," Jin adds.

Lu Jie, Robeco’s head of investments in China, notes that the firm has long been incorporating environmental, social and governance ( ESG ) into its investment decisions, and has applied it as well in its Chinese equities strategies.

“ESG analysis provides us with a different perspective on the companies we invest in and make us a better-informed investor. We integrated decarbonization commitments in our Chinese equities strategies at the very early stage and we will continue to promote this in our future Chinese equities investments," Lu says.